Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in northern Virginia. It was founded in 1749 by Captain Philip Alexander II, and it was incorporated in 1779. In 1755, General Edward Braddock organized his expedition against the French at Carlyle House in Alexandria during the French and Indian War, lending his name to Braddock Road. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British launched a successful supply raid on Alexandria. Alexandria was briefly included in Washington DC before being retroceded to Virginia, with the Potomac River forming the southern border of DC. In 1870, Alexandria became independent of Alexandria County, which would go on to change its name to Arlington County in 1920. Alexandria was occupied by the Union at the beginning of the American Civil War, and Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth became the first fatality of the Civil War when he was shot dead while trying to remove a Confederate flag from the roof of the city's Marshall House Inn. In 1861 and 1862, Alexandria experienced a population surge due to the arrival of escape slaves, and they made up half of the population by the war's end in 1865. In 1965, the city integrated its schools, and the city would go on to become a suburb of Washington, with its largest employer being the Department of Defense. In 2017, Alexandria had a population of 160,035 people.